In September 2008, I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a huge shock to me. Within you will find my journey into the scary world of cancer and my struggles to emerge from it.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Orange-Gold Sparkly Nails

My nails

Lake that I stopped at this morning on my bike ride. I did my first biathlon here, swimming a mile (harder than I thought as I am blind without glasses) and then running a 5K X-country (much easier)

The other day I treated myself to a deluxe mani-pedi, the kind in which they massage your legs for almost an hour and put all these hot towels, hot stones, different masks and scrubs, etc on your feet and legs. Alas I picked a color that I believe is too dark for my toes but I do like my fingers. Over the regular polish, she put a gold glitter glaze. Wish I had asked her to put this on my toes too.

I didn't get manicures while I was working. Even though I always wore gloves, somehow acetone would leach into them. I would put polish on my toenails to cover up various running injuries. Chemo, especially Taxol, is especially hard on nails. Some people lose most of their nails during treatment. I lost a few toe nails and some of my fingernails separated from the nail bed. They were covered with Mees' lines, 4 white stripes for each cycle and some brown stain that looked like I got coffee on them. But now, my nails are all better.

Sundays are the best day for a long bike ride. Alas, I awoke to strong winds. I kept putting off going out there, lazy as I am, but the winds were increasing. Fortunately they were only straight-on head winds for a brief period and by some miracle, I had more tailwinds than headwinds as there was a switch in my favor. It also looked like it would rain, as it has been for the past week. But when I was on some dirt roads that wound through the woods, the sun came out. This is inconvenient as it is hard to tell shadows from pot-holes with bright sun.

I stopped for water and a stretch by the lake pictured above. A man came by me with a trash container that he was emptying into the lake. Hmmmm. Turns out he was relocating a snapping turtle roughly the size of the one I rescued earlier this week. He lives on a pond with ducks and geese. The turtles eat the ducklings upsetting his kids. He said this was the 4th turtle this week he relocated. They were found digging holes in his yard to lay eggs but he thinks he got them before the egg laying. He loves the ducks but hates the geese. He has trained his dog to chase the geese away but to leave the ducks, quite a trick.

Mom's group tonight, on a Sunday. Our schedules conflict so much these days, it was the only time we all could make it. I am bringing dessert. Wild blueberry clafouti anyone?

Steve and me

40th anniversary trip to Spain

About me

I am a mother of 3, wife of 1, and grandmother of 6. For years, I had been a medicinal chemist. Not long after I was retired early, I found myself with triple negative breast cancer. My struggles with it are in this blog along with the joys and trials of being a mother and grandmother. I love to be physically active, travel, read, and garden. Although my degrees are in chemistry and cellular biology not medicine, I keep up with the medical literature and report herein watching closely for good news against this deadly disease. As time goes on, my stay in Cancerland has become more a bad memory than a reality. This blog has since morphed into a photo blog in which I try to capture moments of beauty in my life.